Camera Works: New Mars Orbiter Images 'Fantastic'

HiRISE took this first test image from orbit on March 24, 2006, from an altitude of 2,489 kilometers (1,547 miles). The scene covers an area 49.8 kilometers (30.9 miles) wide and 23.6 kilometers (11.7 miles) high, of landscape typical of Mars' mid-latitude southern highlands.Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona.

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), has relayed spectacular test
images using its super-powerful camera leaving mission scientists
and engineers more than pleased with the initial imagery.

The views from MRO's High Resolution Imaging Experiment (HiRISE) camera, which has called the most powerful camera ever sent to red planet, reached Earth early Friday.

"The
quality of the images is fantastic!" HiRISE principal investigator Alfred
McEwen, of the University of Arizona, told SPACE.com. "This demonstrates
that both the HiRISE camera and the spacecraft pointing performed superbly."

After
the test shots using HiRISE wrap up on Saturday, the camera will be turned off
while the spacecraft "aerobrakes" - a technique whereby
the MRO spacecraft repeatedly dips into the upper atmosphere more than five
hundred times to scrub off speed. By doing so, the spacecraft will drop into
successively more circular orbits.

MRO launched on Aug. 12 of last
year. It reached Mars and began orbiting the
red planet on March 10.

"People
have been saying 'oooh' and 'ahhh' a lot while examining the first images," said
Loretta McKibben, a spokeswoman for the HiRISE operations at the University of
Arizona in Tucson.

MRO
quest: persistence of water

The
orbiter is hauling an array of science instruments, including a radar
device designed to probe the subsurface of Mars for layers of ice, rock and,
perhaps, liquid water that might be accessible from the surface.

NASA's MRO
is on a quest to find supportive evidence that water persisted on the surface
of Mars for a long period of time. While other Mars missions have shown that
water flowed across the surface in Mars' history, it remains a mystery whether
water was ever around long enough to provide a habitat for life.

These are the Context
Camera (CTX) that provides wide area views of Mars terrain to help scientists
appreciate the context for close-up photos, as well as a trial-run of the Mars
Color Imager (MARCI) - a weather camera that eyes clouds and dust storms.

Third
time's the charm

Another key
instrument on MRO is to be turned on later today - the Mars Climate Sounder
(MCS). Getting this instrument to the red planet has been tough-going.

The device
flew on the ill-fated Mars Observer that was lost just before Mars
arrival in August 1993. Then it was onboard the metric-challenged mission of
the Mars Climate Orbiter that was lost in September 1999
when one engineering team thought metric while another figured in English
units.

Daniel
McCleese is the principal investigator for the MCS, a scientist at the Jet
Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California. He told SPACE.com
that MCS will be powered on this evening as MRO is near apoapsis - that's the
farthest the spacecraft now swings by Mars.

At that
time, a brief period of taking test data with MCS is slated. The device will be
turned off as MRO nears periapsis - a part of its orbit that brings the probe
closest to the red planet early Saturday, McCleese explained.

Checkouts
and calibrations

MRO is also
flying the Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars - CRISM for
short. The instrument is another high-tech detective that will help seek traces
of past water on the Martian surface.

It isn't
grabbing images yet, as its cover is still on. But the testing has gone well,
advised Michael Buckley, a spokesman at The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics
Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland.

The APL-led
CRISM team conducted three successful checkouts of the instrument during the
cruise to Mars. According to APL's Scott Murchie, the principal investigator
for the instrument, the device is working very well.

This
summer, the CRISM team will continue planning for the next round of spacecraft
checkouts and instrument calibrations -- which begin when MRO's aerobraking
phase ends in September -- and refining the software it will use to operate the
instrument and collect data.

"In fact,
we expect the first data - images -- in mid-September, when the cover is
opened," Buckley told SPACE.com.

Following
several months of aerobraking to achieve a circular, polar orbit, MRO will
begin its primary mission starting in November 2006 and run through November
2008. The primary mission is followed by a communications relay phase,
currently planned to run through December 2010.